Spread
by harrymarks
Summary: Hawaii- one of the few places on the planet that escaped the infection. Home of what remains of the government. Safe Haven. Until it isn't anymore. Follow Brad and Ryan as they adjust to the infection. Will a cure be found by the mad doctor at the Navy Base? (Characters from the show will appear. Also, mentions of slash.)
1. Chapter 1

It was amazing how some areas of the world remained unaffected by the plague—in that, there were no _major _outbreaks. Take Australia, Britain and Ireland, for example. All three shut their seaports and airports immediately, effectively sealing their borders. Being islands, and thus, cut off from major landmasses, the overland migration of infected didn't affect them. Sure, there were the seaborne infected—those ships who were fleeing ports and that had taken on people who it turned out were infected, but the combined efforts of the Royal Navy and the Irish Navy (small as it was) prevented any major threat to Britain and Ireland. Same went for Australia. Until the oil began to dry up and the navies of all three countries ended up dry docked.

Then infected ships began appearing along the shore lines of Australia and wrecking along its reefs and beaches. Given its vast size, many of these zombies were never seen again. A few managed to wander into towns or suburbs, and were quickly taken care of. The Australian government was confident, at least publically. In private it was a different matter. The Prime Ministers Secretary reported to him that she couldn't get in contact with her brother in some small town "up north, near where the first ship wrecked." With some digging, it turned out that several small towns had simply gone quiet. They had been explained away as "failures on the power/communications grid," but the Prime Minister and his cabinet set up a group to monitor the spread of towns that went dark.

When France experienced its first outbreaks, panicked mobs began choking up the channel tunnel, knowing that they couldn't cross the channel by boat. The British and French Armies kept them at bay for as long as they could.

Of course, there were other island nations that did the same- sealing their borders and sinking infected ships. Even areas of the Unites States did this. Hawaii for example. The navy kept ships away, and even a year after the infection first hit, there had been no major outbreaks. There had been a few minor outbreaks among the refugees that had fled from the mainland, but nothing that the local authorities couldn't handle. Of course, food was an issue, and clean water. With so many people to feed and with no merchant fleet bringing supplies from the outside, large swaths of the islands had been turned over to agricultural use. Several fuel tankers that had been adrift had been towed to naval bases, their fuel used to fuel their generators so that naval intelligence could monitor satellites.

In was into one of these surveillance bases on Oahu that Admiral John Bird strode in. He was in a bad mood because they had run out of coffee, and the lack of painkillers meant his old knee injury kept throbbing.

"So, what's the story? What's changed since I left yesterday?" he asked the pretty young officer named Julia.

"There was an incident with those survivors we were tracking at the prison in Georgia. Someone rolled up in a tank and started firing after killing an old man," she reported.

"Deserters?" the Admiral asked.

"Possible. It seems plausible since they knew how to operate a tank. Facial recognition got a hit on two guys. One of them the leader of the group at Woodbury. He's dead now. The other came up in a law enforcement database."

"A criminal?"

"No, a Sheriff's Deputy. Rick Grimes. From the Intel we could gather, he was the leader of the prison survivors before the attack disbanded them. We are tracking several survivors now."

"OK. Make your report to your replacement when they get in."

Admiral Bird went around to all the stations, getting reports from various ranks and ratings that were monitoring several groups of survivors or viable targets that could help the military if what remained of the government ever decided that they wanted to retake the mainland.

"Anything on Washington?" he asked a young able seaman.

"Nothing sir. I keep trying to raise them, but at this stage, it seems likely that the same thing happened to them that happened in the CDC—the generators just ran out of fuel."

"Well, keep trying. Maybe someone will find some to fire them up for a short while, if they re alive."

000

Just off the coast, on one of the ships the navy had sunk, a section of hull that had been weakened by the torpedo that had struck the hull gave way under the weight of zombies behind it, and several hundred spilled out onto the ocean floor.

000

On a secluded corner on the far side of the island of Oahu, two teenage boys ran onto the beach. They were maybe sixteen at most.

"Dude, we really shouldn't be doing this Ryan," one of them protested, but he still stripped out of his clothes and slipped on some shorts. His companion grinned as he did the same.

"What is there to be scared of Brad?" Ryan asked, as he stretched his lean body and felt joints popping. "You are the one who wanted to go surfing."

Brad rolled his eyes at the hidden meaning in his words.

"Yeah, I meant really go surfing, not what you have planned," Brad said, as he flopped onto the sand. Ryan lay down beside him and fidgeted for a minute before sliding closer to Brad and laying his head onto his chest. He traced a finger over Brad's abs.

"Come on, you know you want to be together," he murmured into Brad's ear. When Brad opened his mouth to protest, Ryan crushed their lips together. Both boys fought for dominance, until Brad finally straddled Ryan, and the smaller boy stopped struggling. When they finally came up for air, both boys smiled at each other.

"Maybe I do want to go surfing after all," Brad smiled.

A while later, both boys were just pulling on their clothes when the figures began walking out of the sea and onto the beach. Brad saw them first, and his voice caught in his throat for a second as he took in the bloated, water logged bodies shambling out of the surf.

"Ryan, we gotta move," Brad croaked.

"Give me a second. This belt is a bastard to do up," Ryan grumped.

Brad couldn't speak as more of the creature's shambled into view. Creatures he had only seen in movies and in news reports were quickly filling up the beach. He grabbed Ryan and spun him round to face the horde. Without another word, both boys ran into the woods.

**Authors Note: First chapter. What do you think? Like? Should I continue?**


	2. Chapter 2

Brad and Ryan ran until they were out of breath. They were in sight of the parking lot, and struggled against cramps until they reached Brad's jeep. Once there, Brad hit the gas, and didn't slow until they reached the nearest police station. Through deep, ragged breaths, they told the on duty cop what had happened on the beach. He paled, and immediately disappeared into the back room, where he dialled a number. Brad and Ryan were taken into another room, given bottles of water, and told to wait. Several minutes later, they heard the sound of helicopters flying low overhead.

000

(On the beach)

The fight was long and messy, but eventually, all the things were taken care of, save one, which would be transported back to the medical facility to be examined by a team of Doctors. The only information they had about the virus, or whatever the hell had caused these things came via a Dr. Edwin Jenner at the CDC, and he had stopped broadcasting several months before. They hadn't been able to contact him for some unknown reason. Some technician postulated that at some point during or after the outbreak in Atlanta, his equipment must have been damaged, leaving him with the ability to transmit but not receive messages.

"Make sure that door is secured," an older man shouted at his subordinates, who had just tosses a bound and gagged individual into the back of an unmarked van.

"Sir," a younger man in green combat fatigues called out, waving the other man over.

"What is it Nelson?" the older man asked once he reached him. Nelson pointed at the sand.

"The cop who called this in said two kids reported it. You can see their foot prints here. See how they are evenly spaced and don't cross each other? They just run parallel too each other?"

"So?" the older man asked.

"Sir, two people means two sets of tracks. Four at most, if you count them coming onto the beach. I counted sixteen sets of tracks. None of which match the prints of the boots our men are wearing. At most, taking in the tracks the kids left, that leaves twelve sets of footprints unaccounted for."

"So that leaves possible twelve of these things wandering the island," the older man surmised.

"Correct sir."

"Contact the police. I'll notify command. And get those kids to the base. I wanna interview them myself."

000

Brad sat in a bare cement interrogation room with two mute Navy SEALS who were armed to the teeth. He had tried to talk to them, to alleviate his boredom, but all he had gotten in reply was a curt "Remain seated and Captain Rourke will be in shortly." He was tempted to go over to the one way glass and tap on it, and was about to get up and do so, just for the hell of it, when the door opened and an older man came in. Brad guessed he was old by his grey hair, but his body looked toned. He sat across the table and opened a file.

"Bradley Cooper. Born the fifteenth of May, 1998, to Margaret and Henry Cooper. Two younger brothers. You are in the top two per cent in your class and are on the football and swim teams. You work at the subsistence farm a mile from your house one day a week. You are in the ROTC and you expressed a desire to join the military once you graduate school. Have I missed anything?" Captain Rourke asked.

"No sir," Brad answered promptly.

"Hmm. I think I have. Or, to be more accurate, you have missed something. Like what you were doing down at the beach today," Captain Rourke said.

Brad shrugged.

"Blowing off steam. I had a day off and just needed to get away from everything for a short while," Brad responded. Captain Rourke nodded in understanding.

"Were you followed out of the forest?" the Captain asked.

Brad frowned, thinking.

"Well, we didn't see any coming after us, or hear them, but it's possible," Brad said.

"Possible?" Captain Rourke asked.

"Yeah, I mean, it's what they do, isn't it? Chase after living people to eat them."

"I suppose it is," Captain Rourke said grimly. "According to my file, you arrived at the beach around fourteen hundred hours, and reported the attack at fifteen twenty. Given the speed you were doing, the police station is ten minutes away. Allowing ten minutes to get to the beach through the forest and another ten out, what were you doing on the beach for fifty minutes?" the Captain asked.

"Chatting and having fun with my buddy," Brad answered, aware that it wasn't the whole truth, but not exactly a lie either.

Captain made a none committal noise in his throat, and jotted down a few notes.

"Well, thank you Mister Cooper. Lieutenant Hanes will see you home," Captain Rourke said, nodding to one of the guards. With that, he left.

000

Captain Rourke stood behind the large viewing panel and watched as the Doctors dissected the thing strapped to the table. Behind them, the screen was filled with the face of Dr. Edwin Jenner, talking about his initial research into the infection. Captain Rourke was joined by a colleague.

"You get anything out of your kid?" she asked.

"Nothing useful," he answered. "Just that is was probable that the things chased after them."

"I got the same from my interrogation. You really want to use them for the plan?" she asked.

"We don't have the personnel to carry it out. We will have to start recruiting from the civilian population. Washington has gone dark, and we need to intercept that scientist if we want to find a cure."

"Yes, but these two are only kids."

"They are physically fit and strong. They meet the criteria. Anyway," he smiled, "you know the argument the government will make. 'If we start recruiting now, we will only take away people from the subsistence farms.' The kids only contribute one day a week. They can't make that argument then. Maybe recruiting a few kids will help them change their stance."

They stood in silence while Captain Rourke made a decision.

"Pick them up Friday next week. School lets out for summer vacation. We will start training then. When the time comes, we find a way to drop them into the last know location of that scientist. Where was it again?"

"Just south of Atlanta."


End file.
